/uyiji^" 



jiaiiil 

dHlli(l|Hj||{|( 




Class 
Book. 



6^^ 



E' 



/ / — 



Cop)TightN°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



in^nvp ot tf^t i!<rottti 



iiarp of tl)e Jtort]^ 



BY 
ARTHUR WENTWORTH HEWITT 






COLONIAL PRESS 

C. H. SIMONDS COMPANY 

BOSTON 






Copyright, 1916 
By Arthur Wentworth Hewitt 



JAN 20 1916 



;)Jl.A420f)20 



Biaa 



POEMS 





PAGE 


The Wayfarer 


9 


The Follower 


12 


The Endless Quest . . . . 


13 


Blue Hills Beyond the Green 


15 


The Wayside Tree 


18 


The Bells of Eternity 


23 


Seven Songs of Evening 


28 


The Lost Illusion . . . . 


34 


A Song of Her 


39 


Heartache 


40 


Beside my Cottage Door 


41 


The Ballad of Broken Links . 


45 


April and Indian Summer . 


49 


Eileen of Inverlin 


51 


The Gawky 


54 


The Shepherd's Daughter 


57 


The Wraith of Robin 


61 


By the Moon of Hallowe'en . 


. 66 


Norna Thornton 


. 75 


Evil Ivan's Bride 


. 80 


Vengeance Is Mine . 


88 


The Evenstar .... 


. 102 


In Shadowland .... 


. 109 


The Shadow Brother 


. Ill 



fl^arp of tf)e J^ortf) 

THE WAYFARER. 

One league, ten leagues, and a thousand, onward 

into the night; 
The lone, low hillsides darken, the stars are 

wildly bright. 
From the dimness of leagues beyond me, their 

journeyings only begun, 
The stars of the wearying thousands shine w^eari- 

less over this one. 

For only one do we travel, w^here one by one in 

the dark 
From lone abysses of dimness each league has its 

several spark. 
'Twas one by one that we traveled the leagues 

that behind us are past — 
We walk but one in the present, and die in one 

at the last. 

9 



Jl^avp of ttie Notrtii 

Who walks one step of the journey may not for- 
ever turn back; 

Who steps no foot of the journey must wither 
and die in his track. 

From the days of loves that will linger and 
sweeten through all he aspires, 

He must trample all he has cherished to stand 
on the height he desires. 

But the still, small voice of his Being will call 

him away and afar 
Where loom his delectable mountains, where 

shines his delectable star; 
Where ever, but ever beyond him, still ever he 

knows he shall gain 
The hills of his ultimate Being, the crown of 

his ultimate pain. 

Yet on through the leagues and the dimness, ah, 

yet to the mountains above. 
He will yearn with unquenchable longing and 

throb with unhealable love; 
10 



Still gleams, in the homeland behind him, the 

hallowed, enhaloing light 
As it shone when he left it forever, a vagabond 

into the night. 

Oh, long and homeless the journeys, and dim 
the wild starlight gleam 

Till pilgrims and strangers have crossed all 
purple peaks of their dream 

To the land where the light that darkened in the 
dim, long journeys we trod 

We shall greet for once and forever, the Un- 
speakable Glory of God. 



11 



fl^uvp of tJie tUCortf) 



THE FOLLOWER. 

By starless night, or morning 

Auroral and sublime, 
On winter wind or vernal, 
Relentless and eternal, 
I hear the ancient warning 

The hills of soul to climb. 

Through death and desolation, 
Through hope and happy things; 

Through valleys vast and hollow. 

O'er hills, I follow, follow 

The eerie aspiration 

Of ghostly whisperings. 

Oh, joy to follow faster. 

By rocky road or green! 
I who have rested never 
Shall ask no rest for ever 
Of Destiny, my master. 

Immortal and unseen. 
12 



^uv» of tifte isrortu 



THE ENDLESS QUEST. 

The old, eternal calling, love, 

Is sounding in my soul; 
The steps afar are falling, love, 

I foUov^ toward the goal. 

The angel wearies never, love, 
Who has her pilgrim trained 

To seek one quest forever, love. 
Forever unattained. 

I know not where she leads me, love, 

I only know 'tis far; 
I know not if she heeds me, love. 

Where death and heartbreak are. 

Oh, tired to-day with roaming, love. 
And leagues on leagues to roam. 

My soul, that has no homing, love. 
Has slept and dreamed of home. 
13 



J^uvp of tt)t jSTorti^ 

T wake as day is failing, love — 

On forest hills afar 
The whippoorwills are wailing, love. 

Unto the evening star. 

The night is dark and eerie, love. 

And lonely is the quest; 
O fold my heart — 'tis weary, love - 

To-night upon thy breast! 



14 



JI^UVP Df tlftt l^OVttt 



BLUE HILLS BEYOND THE GREEN. 

My home was In the highlands, 
Where shone in emerald sheen 

The leaves and vines and grasses 
Upon the hills of green. 

But all my heart grew restless, 

And all my soul forgot 
The things of its possession 

For things possessed not. 

Beyond the greener highlands 

I saw the ranges lie, 
The azure mountain ranges, 

Against the azure sky. 

They shone in violet colors 

Against the sunset sheen; 
The far off hills of azure 

Were fairer than the green. 
15 



^nvp of tije T!<rott1^ 

And so I left the homeland 
Where all my memories are, 

To seek through all the distance 
The hills of blue afar. 



From all my vines and orchards, 
From all my soul had gained. 

From all my heart's attainments, 
I sought my unattained. 

The way was long and weary, 
My heart grew strange and lone; 

But now at last the ranges 
Are near and are my own. 

But all the hills are barren. 
And all the hills are brown; 

Beneath my feet they darken, 
And like the desert frown. 

And once before I perish 
My wayward glances roam, 
16 



fj^atv of ttje isrortii 

And turn with speechless longing 
Back to my hills of home. 

Oh, mine no more for ever! 

Oh, fair they shine to view, 
The hills from whence I wandered 

Far off — and azure blue! 



17 



^uv» of tf)t ISTorti^ 



THE WAYSIDE TREE. 

A shade for the sunny sod 
Was made by the Mighty God, 

Who said, long years ago: 
" From yonder naked clod 

Let branching beauty grow." 

For lovers and pilgrims were there, 
Men weary, and men In despair, 
And souls who had love for the Fair, 
And God for them all had a care, 
So God upraised a tree — 
Aye blessed be the God of the tree! 
And, long though the years may be, 
What need of hurry hath He? 
Who Is all the gods and fate 
Can well afford to wait — 

Ah well, 'tis this, my song: 
God raised the wayside tree 

Through half a century long. 
18 



m^VP of tfjir WOttJj 

Lo, half a hundred years 
That slowly sail on our tears 
To the place where lost years go 
(Which God alone can know) 
God gave to one lone tree — 
So long that man might smile 
And weep and pray a while 

And greet eternity; 
So long that babes unborn 
Have seen the light of morn, 
Grown grey, and died forlorn, 

Such weary years to dree. 
God called the years well spent. 
The half a hundred lent 

To that lone, beautiful tree. 

Lo! toward its mighty root 
Comes, axe in hand, the brute; 
And fifty years of God 
He levels to the sod! 

(Yea, trees of the forest there were, 
Signs of the Infinite care; 
19 



lH^nvp of tiie Wotttj 

Birches and maples and fir, 

Fuel and lumber were there, 

Enough for him, and to spare; 

Coal mother earth did bear — 

No matter — what did he care?) 
Straightway the iron he swung 

On the poem the Father began. 
Beauty and soul far flung. 
On a song that God had sung 

The iron discordant ran; 
Struck Ideality's plan. 
Beauty for the soul of man. 

And a shade for the fevered head — 
Oh, loss irrelievable now. 

For, ere a half century's fled, 
Another may shelter the brow. 

But the brow neath its shade will be dead J 

Oh, many and many an hour. 

Like many and many a man, 
I've sat by the branching bower — 

Its leaves were as cool as a fan. 
There, wearied on the quest 
20 



l^uvp of tfft ISTortti 

My soul forever seeks, 
I sat me down to rest 

And watch my purple peaks. 
Delectable and far, 

Against the sunset gates. 
Where shines the evening star. 

And all my glory waits, 
I saw them shining fair. 

And wondrous peace was mine, 

And whispers came divine 
Upon the evening air. 
Oh, many a blazing noon 

The shade would intervene ; 

And at night, through the branches green, 
I have watched the pallid moon — 
But now, no more! no more! 

The man who cut the tree 

Has cut my rest from me, 
And now my heart is sore. 

Ay, curse him! Shatter him, all 

Ye demons, at every turn. 
The beast of all beasts that crawl ! 
21 



lU^uvp of tije Wottt) 

God grant him in Hell to burn 
Till the last of the timbers fall 

To ashes, which fashioned the tree! 

And then may the brute go free 
To whimper at Heaven's wall ; 

But then will not bloom for me 

Again my beautiful tree, 
Though all my tears should fall. 



22 



^avp of tJir Wortf) 



THE BELLS OF ETERNITY. 

Only a hermit, he 

Evermore hears, 
Under the glistening 
Moonbeams a-listening. 
Tones of eternity 

Sweet to his ears; 
Low, but insistently, 
Solemnly, distantly, 
Wafted on winds of the 

Whispering years. 
With his fraternity 
(Squirrels and wandering 
Things) he is pondering 

Echoes he hears 
Evermore stealing 
And tolling and pealing — 
The bells of eternity 

Sweet to his ears. 



IS^uvp of tftt Kortti 

These are his churches, 
The maples and birches, 
The elms and the covering 
Blue of the hovering 

Heavens of God; 
While as he crosses 
His grasses and mosses, 
He thinks it no loss his 

Cathedral is trod 
Only by mellowing 
Twilight enhaloing 
Angels who whisper the 

Glory of God, 
And by the morning 
Or sunset, adorning 
His fonts, the wild fountains 
That rush down the mountains 

Past his abode. 

(Hush! in the gloaming, 
Hesperus-homing 

Rays of the sun 
Smile on the roaming 

Eremite one. 
24 



J^uvp of tJie l^ovVfi 

Then is It strange his 
Crimsoning changes 
Down the blue ranges 

Far in the west, 
Hint of the home 

And the hills of his rest? 
Whence ever come, 

Distantly stealing. 

Tones of the pealing 
Bells of eternity. 

Sweet to his ears. 
Wafted on winds of the 

Whispering years.) 

Hush! for It passes the 
Emerald grasses, the 
Whispering wind of the 

Vanishing years. 
Under the quivering 
Leaflets delivering 

Into his ears 
Words of the withering 

Joys of the years, — 
25 



Blooming like dawn in a 

Glory of light, 
Fading and gone in a 
Gloom, as of night. 
Fleeting and 
Fleeting and 
Fleeting in tears! 
Meeting us, 
Greeting us, 
Fading and fleeting thus. 
Vanish the years. 



Leave him a-pondering, 
Here mid his wandering 

Wildling fraternity. 
Time only swells 
Tones of the bells 
Tolling on dells, 

And woods he will roam 
Ringing and warning. 
Gloaming and morning. 

Calling him home — 
26 



^^v» of tiie TSfottf) 

Bells of eternity, 

Sweet to his ears; 
Echoing, stealing, 
Tolling and pealing, 
Wafted on winds of the 

Whispering years. 



2T 



IS^uvp of tije TSTottti 



SEVEN SONGS OF EVENING. 

I. 

While softly radiant is the afterglow 
A faint and far intoning of deep bells, 
Dying away in distance down the dells, 

Is chiming on the evening air. I know 

The quaint old lichen tinted church, below 
A stone old ivied steeple green and bright, 
Beside the ancient elms, in sunset light 

That smiles on mounds of burials long ago. 
There slumber under mossy monuments 

The fathers, nevermore to hear the slow 

Old bells sublimely swinging to and fro. 

Their solemn, fading cadence flinging thence. 

The bells are hushed, and now the veery — hark! 

A song and then a silence and the dark! 

II. 

Beneath the ancient elms that stand around 
The country graveyard in the lonely vale 
I stand at sunset, where the myrtles trail 

28 



^uv» of tf|t TSTortlft 

And lichened marble over mossy mound 
In vain would whisper, " Death is on this 
ground." 
The violets blossom in the greening grass, 
Wild roses bud, and ever, as they pass. 
The orioles and veeries sprinkle sound 
Down into evening's green and golden glow, 
And beauty lays on death and everything 
The old immortal joyance of the spring. 
Like Memnon to the morning long ago. 
The very marbles sing, with rapture rife, 
" I am the resurrection and the life." 

III. 

O lonely moon that movest up the sky. 
If fairer bark e'er sailed a softer sea 
I know not where! In blue infinity 

Among the fleecy floating cloudlets I, 

Sitting within thy hollow shell on high, 
As a babe in a golden bowl to float in glee, 
Am fain to float afar to-night with thee. 

Wild wonders down blue seas of air to spy. 

There, rocking on the billows of the breeze, 
29 



Jl^^vp of ttie Notrtl^ 

The green old ocean's bosom heaving bare, 
The lofty mountains lifting through the air, 

The far off little lovers under trees 

By houses big as boxes — I would stare, 

Peering over thy brim, to look at these. 

IV. 

A fearsome, creeping, inky, starless night! 

The velvet monster muffles dismally 
All things from vision, yet is out of sight; 

Eyes straining from their sockets could not see 
His eldritch shape, nor misers aught behold 
Though walking half a yard from heaps of gold. 

Their tender babes might mothers laughingly 
Lead under trees whence Death, all ghastly, 

leans. 
The lewdest boor might think on shelling beans. 

While Aphrodite naked from the sea 
Walked half a rod before him. Serpent's hiss 

Or wolf's bare fang might ambush man to- 
night. 
I wonder is the breathless grave like this? 

It is as if God died who made the light. 
30 



^avp of tfie :t<rorti^ 

V. 
Bewildering, awaking star on star, 

Capella, Vega, and the Pleiades, 

In crystal constellations when one sees 
Step forth on sapphire battlements afar, 
And wondering thinks what boundless spaces are 

Between the closest, where perchance is 
whirled 

Round the Galaxy's least atom many a world 
That dwarfeth this, Infinity seems far. 
Then search all rolling worlds and gather all 

The drops of water, fire, and grains of sand; 
All leaves that ever fell, all flakes that fall — 

Make each lone atom in a sum so grand, 
A billion rolling aeons, let them flee — 
'Tis not a moment of Eternity. 

VI. 

The rain has fallen all the afternoon ; 

The soft gray twilight's robe with rain is 
dripping; 
The drowsy blossoms nod beneath the boon 
Of needed bath, and all the earth is sipping. 
31 



^uvp of tiie TSTottlft 

Brown rivulets are running down the road; 

Mud puddles in the ceaseless raining wrinkle; 
And polished pebbles roll, anew bestowed 

By dashing drops that round them drip and 
sprinkle. 
On rocks and pasture, pool, and brooklet splash- 
ing, 
On grass and trees that long will drip ere 
drying; 
On window panes all day I've watched the dash- 
ing, 
But oh! the joy of gentle night, and lying 
Beneath the slanted roof where softly mingles 
With sleep the patter, patter on the shingles! 

VII. 

O soul, one song more sing of evenfall, 
Of soft and lone and wondrous April-tide! 

Again the golden hermit thrushes call. 

And o'er the world the rainwinds wander wide. 

But mellow more than haloes fall the rays 
Of setting sunlight on the grasses brown; 

The whippoorwills bewail the closing days, 



Jl^uvp of tilt l^ovtfi 

And swollen brooks to the valleys gurgle 
down. 
Green singers piping shrill in silver song 

Along the lonely valleys and the swales, 
(Clear ringing choruses through evenings long 

Till mellow music over all prevails). 
The little frogs are singing, wild with spring! 
My heart will break if more I try to sing. 



S3 



I^atji of tJie Xortib 



THE LOST ILLUSION. 

Floating mellow through the pathos of the April 
evening twilight, 
I have seen again the vision of my love of long 
ago. 
Down the darkening abysses of my soul her angel 
eyellght 
Smiles to life the love, the longing, and the 
unforgotten woe. 

Haloed bright with utter glory, such as lights 
the golden bridal 
When the memories of April kiss the hopes 
forever dead, 
Thou hast all the wild, sad splendor of my 
dreamland's broken Idol, 
Thou art all as I had dreamed thee, with the 
haloes round thy head. 

Art thou come from violet mountains of that 
distant past whose dimness 
34 



fi^uvp of tfit :e<rortift 

Scarce permits to dying echoes one dear mystic 
thrill of you, 
Once again to wake affection cold as craters, 
stark with grimness, 
White with death that resurrection never can 
to life renew? 

If thou livest yet I know not, thou art dead for 
aye and ever 
With the death that lieth piteous and forever 
on my dream. 
Girl, I loved thee long and madly, but for me 
God made thee never — 
All thy haloes were illusion, light as moon- 
beams on the stream. 

Thou of earth wert only earthy, like the brown, 
fresh April grasses, 
Yet celestial as I saw thee, like the peaks afar 
and blue; 
Toward the violet hills I wandered — rough and 
brown were all their passes; 
Toward thyself I struggled, homing — when I 
found thee, love withdrew. 
35 



la^uvp of tt^t TSTotrtift 

Is there beauty in the grasses, or the April twi- 
light holy, 
Or the far-off, silver music of the frogs along 
the vale. 
In the hours w^hen Nature's freshness is so sweet 
it seems that slowly 
All the fragrances of Heaven through the gates 
of God exhale? 



Or is all the sweet, sad splendor in the mortal 
eyes that, seeing. 
Only seem to see immortal beauty reigning in 
the world ? 
Are the eyes all Nature's color? Is there naught 
beyond our being 
For the thrills that are forever through our 
throbbing bosoms whirled? 

Wert thou lovely, O thou loved one, who art 
loved again, ah never! 
Who art dead as death can make thee, though 
thy heart still throb and thrill? 
36 



lS^av9 Of tfie ISTottfi 

Or were all the haloes round thy tresses, eyes, 
and soul forever 
But within the dreamer's soul that saw thee, 
loved, and dreamed his will ? 

Oh, could death for deathless longing, or could 
life for lifeless dreaming 
Swing from fancy into truth the portals aye 
and ever barred! 
Could I find thee what I thought thee — as one 
April drew thy seeming — 
Whether what thou art I know not — what I 
dreamed of thee unmarred! 

Nevermore my soul shall meet thee, nevermore 
shall know the smarting 
Of the pain when thou wouldst turn unsmiling 
from a heart it hurt! 
Bitter though it was to lose thee, better, better 
far the parting 
Than to watch the haloes fading from what 
once I dreamed thou wert! 
37 



la^uvp of tftt TSTottl^ 

Now I know I never loved thee, now I know my 
spirit only, 
Through the pathos of the twilight, then was 
seeking for its own. 
Through the long, unnumbered valleys, through 
its dreamland echoes lonely. 
Still it seeketh mid the haloes, still unknowing 
and unknown. 

O why wilt thou longer haunt me through the 
wild, pathetic twilight. 
Lost illusion of a love-dream, with thine an- 
guish wild and vain? 
Far as Algol from Arcturus, God divides us — 
and her eyelight. 
Fair as moonrise on the mountains, never beams 
on me again. 



38 



fj^atp of tiie yiovtfi 



A SONG OF HER. 

O loved so dearly, loved so long, 

And lost so long ago. 
My heart shall sing thee one more song, 

Though thou wilt never know^. 

From him thou nevermore wilt see, 

A song thou wilt not hear. 
Of every smile thou gavest me. 

And every bitter tear. 

More dim than April's twilight glow, 

More tender and more sad. 
Are all the years of long ago 

And all the hopes they had. 

They die all darkly, all the throng, 
They leave me lone, I know — 

O loved so dearly, loved so long, 
And lost so long ago! 
39 



Jl^^vp of tiie ISTottti 



HEARTACHE. 

I ache for thee, I ache for thee, 

O loved and lost so long ago, 
But all my hope is memory. 

And all my memory is woe. 

Thou canst not come, thou canst not come, 
Thou canst not come again to me ! 

My heart is dead, my song is dumb, 
But all my dreams remember thee. 



40 



I^uvp of tiie TSTottlft 



BESIDE MY COTTAGE DOOR. 

My cottage door is open 

And, sitting near its sills, 
I watch the wondrous twilight 

Enhaloing the hills. 

Oh, tender is the twilight, 

And, strange and wondrous fair 

The round, white moon is lighting 
The violet evening air. 

Beside my cottage doorway. 
In bud and bloom are seen 

The fragrant pink wild roses 
Upon their bushes green. 

To-night my heart is happy, 

To-night the empty years 
Of lone and utter longing 

Have lost at last their tears. 
41 



li^uvp of tiie Xortii 

My own, my unforgotten, 
To-night hath let me know 

Her heart hath reawakened 
Its love of long ago. 

Oh, long ago I lost her! 

Oh, bitter was the throb! 
Oh, hard the years of absence. 

The heartbreak and the sob! 

My one, my own, my only — 
Her heart grew lonely, too! 

And now I wait her coming 
As once she used to do. 

Oh, will she come to brighten 

The violet evening air. 
And yield to my caresses 

Her waving golden hair? 

She comes — her shadow, falling 
Across my cottage door, 
42 



^UV9 Of tifte TSTovtii 

Is moving in the moonlight 
Beside me on the floor. 

I dare not look upon her — 

Oh, shall I ever know^ 
That loveliness, unfaded, 

I loved so long ago? 

Her garments rustle near me, 
A sigh her bosom stirs — 

My foolish fears forsaking, 
I lift my eyes to hers. 

Her eyes have all their glory. 
Her lips are no less warm. 

The years have not diminished 
The splendor of her form. 

To crown the years of yearning, 

To cover all the woe. 
To see her is sufficient. 

My love of long ago! 
43 



J^^vp of tftt isrortu 

" O fair, and unforgotten ! 

lovely, and supreme! 

O lips that lean to kiss me " — 

1 wake — 'tis all a dream ! 

O break, my heart! for Heaven 
No comfort hath to dole. 

But answers with Its silence 
The silence of mv soul. 



44 



n^^ivp of m :scottjj 



THE BALLAD OF BROKEN LINKS. 

I. 

Across the twilight hills she came, 

Across the village green; 
Light hearted lass of Burnlindale, 

As lofty as a queen. 

Under the birch by the little church 

A laddie stopped the lass. 
She laughed and tossed her saucy head, 

" Now, Bob, you let me pass! " 

" No, May! You pay the toll," he said, 

" I'll take it If you don't." 
She laughed and tossed her saucy head- 

" But, Bob, you know I won't! " 

She struggled in her lover's arms, 

A struggle brief and weak. 
Her eyes were laughing Into his. 

He kissed her girlish cheek. 
45 



II. 

Years passed. The lass of Burnlindale 
Awake In the gloaming lay; 

She had folded the morrow's bridal veil 
Out of her sight away. 



Far-away, silvery choirs of frogs 
In the valley piping shrill — 

And memories roll — she hates her soul, 
But tears on the pillow spill. 



Xhey fall from her eyes as wine will flow 

Crushed from the grapes of blue. 
There is one may never know her woe- 
God grant that he in Heaven may know 
That such a thing was true! 



She hated her soul, she turned on her bed, 
She prayed with a broken sob; 

"Forgive me, O kind God!" she said, 
" I wish that it were Bob ! " 
46 



III. 

The twilight sank on Burnlindale, 
'' Now, hail, old comrade, John ! " 

" Hail Bob, old friend ! Where didst thou 
spend 
The years while thou wert gone? " 

" In wars and over waves," he said, 

" But sick of foam and fight, 
By something I am homing led, — 

Why ring the bells to-night?" 

Sublime with deep intoning, 

The church bells swung, afar. 
The echoes died, low moaning. 

" May's wedding bells they are." 

Oh, long when John had turned to go, 

Bob sat beneath the trees. 
But May, who never knew his woe, 
God grant that she in Heaven may know 

He throbbed with memories! 
47 



m^v» of tfje UCottti 

IV. 

" The gloaming fell on Burnlindale, 
As thou wert homing, love — 

Rememberest how I kissed thee, now, 
That happy gloaming, love? 

" The gloaming now on Burnlindale 

Is softly stealing, love, 
And from the church beside the birch 

The bells are pealing, love. 

" Thy bridal bells on Burnlindale, 
Full-toned and tender, love — 

Ah, woe! I thought I had forgot 
Thy smiles, thy splendor, love! 

" The gloaming falls on Burnlindale, 

If hearts are broken, love, 
I know not — oh, I only know 

Heartache unspoken, love ! " 



48 



ll^uvp of ttie TSTortti 



APRIL AND INDIAN SUMMER. 

April twilight, humid breezes, 
Brown the grass the snow releases — 
Roamed a lad at evening lonely, 
Owning love for Nana only. 

June and wildwood. ** Yes," she told him; 
Heaved her bosom close to hold him; 
Squirrels scampered off to chatter 
To their mates about the matter. 

Bridal bells, intoned sublimely, 
Pealed in sweet September timely, 
When the bride came down the valley, 
Leaving church by leafy alley. 

Indian Summer wakes in wonder — 
Blue her skies but white thereunder 
Stands the stone that moans in vain a 
Verse beneath the name of Nana: 
49 



la^nvp of tftt ISfottfi 

" Only loved, unlovely never, 
Only thee I love forever — 
Only thee, and thou art only 
Ashes in a graveyard lonely." 



50 



^av» of m :fi<roi:tj| 



EILEEN OF INVERLIN. 

She walked the woods alone, Eileen of Inverlin ; 
Her eyes were made for smiles, but held the tears 

therein. 
The oriole sang low along the leafy lane 
When there I met Eileen, the lass I loved in 

vain. 

"What grief is thine, Eileen?" I said. A sigh 

she caught. 
And lifted up her eyes of blue forget-me-not. 
'' My lad has gone to war, and said, ' Except we 

win 
I come no more to meet Eileen of Inverlin ! ' " 

'Twas long thereafter, lo, the oriole had fled; 
Before the wailing wind the leaves were drifting, 

dead; 
To turn her love to me I did the deadly sin 
A letter false to bring Eileen of Inverlin. 
51 



^at)i of tfie ISTottti 

" Thy love is false," I said, " he hath forgotten 

thee." 
She sank upon a bank and read, nor looked at me. 
Above the cruel lie she bowed her head of brown ; 
Like billows heaved her breast, her tears were 

dripping down. 

'Twas there I broke her heart, Eileen of Inverlin, 
But noble, when I tried her broken heart to win, 
She flashed, " If he is false, a faithful lover I ! 
Nor thou nor any else shall claim me till I die! " 

One day we learned her lad fell down in battle, 

dead. 
When other days and years were gone, " Eileen," 

I said, 
" Ten years of life I'd lose one smile of thine to 

win — 
Why linger longer lone, Eileen of Inverlin?" 

" My boy is dead, I know — if false I never 

knew. 
But this I know, that still love liyes and love is 

true. 

52 



la^avp of tiie TSrottt) 

His eyes were hazel bright, my bonny Lyndon 

Glynn! 
And he alone may love Eileen of Inverlin." 

Nor long thereafter, oh! the tender leaves were 

green ! 
At sunset in the woods once more I met Eileen — 
The oriole sang low — and she, no longer lone, 
Held arm in arm at last her true love and her 



own. 



Oh, gloriously she uplifts her lashes long — 
My heart is full of hell — the world is full of 

song — 
When ring the bells at morn yon ivied tower 

within, 
A bonny bride will be Eileen of Inverlin! 



53 



^at)i of tt^t tJsTortl^ 



THE GAWKY. 

A gawky came sauntering over the hill. 

Quoth Jennie, a scowl on her brow, 
" With ma in the meadow and pa at the mill, 

How can I have company now! 
Ho! how? 

How can I have company now?" 

"Ho, ho!" said the booby, "Was ever such 
luck? 
None peek at me now if I stay! " 
She flashed like a shaving the lightning had 
struck : 
" I hate you, and you go away! 

Oh, Say! 
I hate you, and you go away! " 

The minx at her meaning he took, it was plain. 
" Oh, two can play hating, you know! " 
54 



Her cheeks were soon wet as a rose in the rain 
He really was going to go! 

Boo! Hoo! 
He really was going to go! 



He squinted a w^e little squint ere he went — 
She choked, and he heard her, the lout! 

He didn't suppose that he knew what it meant, 
But thought he had better find out. 

No doubt. 
He thought he had better find out. 

He caught her. She wriggled and squealed, 
" Oh, you quit! 
You booby, behave yourself, Jim! 
Your kissing I do not want any of it! " 
But the hollyhocks nodded at him 

(At Jim), 
The hollyhocks nodded at him! 

He loosed her, he did ! Oh, the lubber, the loon ! 
But stayed all the gloaming to play, 
55 



IS^uvp of tJie ISfortfi 

Till over the mountain Night kicked up the 
moon, 
And then he went whistling away! 

Oh, say! 
And then he went whistling away! 



66 



ISI^^vp of tfje TSTottl^ 



THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER. 

Where down the sunny mountain gushed the 
gurgling water 

The lad that picked the apples met the shep- 
herd's daughter. 

She stood beneath the birches, on the bank so 
mossy ; 

Her eyes were blue as asters, brown her locks 
and glossy. 

Bare-footed, hesitating, skirts a little lifting, 
She watched the water wimpling, shadows on it 

shifting. 
Across the brook the laddie called, " I'll help 

you over. 
The stones are slippery." Only laughed she at 

her lover. 

" My hand you want to hold it, hold me shall 



you never! 



57 



^uvp of tii^ NotrtJj 

Go tend," she said, " your orchards! " Love 

has hope forever, 
And he a rosy apple gave her, making bolder; 
But she, his apple tossing, hit him on the 

shoulder. 

" Go off," she said, " and leave me! " Round he 

turned him, going. 
Higher she pulled her skirts to wade the waters 

flowing. 
She saw no more the lad, nor he the shepherd's 

daughter 
Till once again they met beside the wimpling 

water. 

He bent beside the babbling brook, athirst, and 
drinking. 

He did not see the girl, of her he was not think- 
ing. 

She came unseen and still; 'twas hot, her cheeks 
were ruddy. 

And with her naked foot she made the water 
muddy. 

58 



fj^atti of ttje Notti^ 

She, springing, ran away; he sprang and fol- 
lowed after. 

She left him far behind, and mocked him with 
her laughter. 

The silly sheep looked on, their pasture grasses 
chewing ; 

They blinked, but could not understand what 
they were viewing. 



But once again the lad beside the wimpling 

water 
Alone and sobbing found the shepherd's pretty 

daughter. 
He pulled her hands away from eyes all red with 

crying. 
" What is the matter, dear? " he said, her cheeks 

a-drying. 

" My sheep are on the mountain — don't know 
where to find them. 

I've hunted till my feet leave bloody tracks be- 
hind them. 

59 



Jl^uvp of tf)e NortJi 

They're lost and gone," she sobbed, " and 

father's gone a-roaming 
With gun upon his shoulder — won't be home 

till gloaming." 

" I'll go to find your sheep, then cry no more, 

my dearie," 
He said, and sought the sheep; he walked till 

he was weary. 
Across the hills he came when purple night was 

falling, 
But every lamb came home, responding to his 

calling. 

The lassie heard them bleating, came and saw 
them folded; 

She hugged their woolly necks and every wan- 
derer scolded. 

How did she thank the lad for home her tru- 
ants bringing? 

She let him kiss her cheek, her arms around him 
clinging. 



^av» of tJie TSTortt) 



THE WRAITH OF ROBIN. 

Eerie eve, eerie eve, 

Ever is Hallow^e'en; 
Lassie, how thy heart vv^ill heave 

When his w^raith is seen! 

Wouldst thou see the laddie, lass, 

Fate for thee requires — 
Know if wedlock come to pass 

As thy heart desires? 

Lassie go when midnight spills. 

Ever at Hallowe'en, 
Terror over Burnlin hills. 

And his wraith is seen. 

Where the naked branches groan, 

Haunted by the moon, 
Thither, lassie, all alone 

Seek the fearful boon. 
61 



IS^Kvp of tiftr Wotrtfi 

Under the birches runs the brook 

Ever at Hallowe'en; 
Bow upon the banks and look, 

And his wraith is seen. 

Then uprose that trembling girl, 
Bowing her bonny head. 

Speaking with her heart awhirl, 
Out she spake and said, 

" In the waters if I spy, 

Ever at Hallowe'en, 
Other face than Rob's, I die 

When the wraith is seen ! " 



Went the lassie where the brook 
Runs toward Burnlindale, 

Bowing on the banks to look. 
Under the moonlight pale — 

Face and face unto her own, 
Ever at Hallowe'en, 
62 



^^vp of tfie tisrortji 

Peering, saw she Rob alone 
When the wraith was seen! 



And she felt a presence light, 

Light as the whispering breeze — 

Then the vision vanished quite. 
Under the birchen trees. 

Nor than hers was better bliss 

Ever at Hallowe'en, 
For her Robin and for this: 

That his wraith was seen. 

But to her at morning came 

Sighing, her sister sad; 
Tidings heavy past all name 

On her lips she had. 

" Death some blithesome bosom kills, 

Ever at Hallowe'en — 
Robin died on Burnlin hills, 

The hour when wraiths were seen ! " 
63 



I^aptu of t^t Kortij 

Sobbed the lassie, heart-broken then, 

"Robin could not die! — 
Happy, happy have we been, 

And his bride am I! 

" Bonny, bonny was my lad ! 

Ever at Hallowe'en — 
Mine was all the love he had. 

And I his wraith have seen ! " 

" Thine he was, and thine he died, 

Lassie, yester eve." — 
" What at Halloweventide 

Message did he leave?" 

" ' I will pass her as I go. 

Ever at Hallowe'en, 
And my lassie then will know 

She my wraith has seen.' " 

" Said he this, and ' This weird night 
Of the coming year 
64 



W^^» of ttie ISTortii 

Will I come for her — '" " O bright 
Hope," she cried, " and dear! " — 

Eerie eve, eerie eve, 

Ever is Hallowe'en, 
Lassie, how thy heart will heave 

When his wraith is seen! 



65 



fl^^vp of tilt l^ovtft 



BY THE MOON OF HALLOWE'EN. 

L 

Above the mountain moved the moon. 

" Now Jeanie, answer me! " 
" I cannot answer thee so soon. 

Oh wait a year! " said she. 

" Thy father's anger thou dost dread — 

Thou wilt forget me, Jean ! " 
" I'll answer thee, alive or dead, 

By the moon of Hallowe'en." 

But out and spake her angry sire 

When she had turned the knob, 
" I'd see thy body burn in fire 

Ere thou shouldst marry Rob ! " 

He took her far away to roam, 

When back the tidings spread 
Unto the mountains of her home 

Of Jeanie Douglas dead. 
66 



J^avp of ti^e TSTottii 

11. 

" I cannot love thee, Agnes Bell — 

I know I am a knave — 
But my heart is hidden deep and v^ell 

In Jeanie Douglas' grave! " 

** Take back thy promise, Rob," she said, 
All choked w^ith anguish hot. 

" Should Agnes ever wish to wed 
With one who loves her not?" 



III. 

And now it is the Hallowe'en, 
White ride the clouds on high, 

And gibbous o'er the azure sheen 
The yellow moon goes by. 

From cloud to cloud across the blue, 
From dark o'er light to dark; 

The somber hills with shifting hue 
The eerie moon doth mark. 
67 



m^v» of tJje Notrtii 

By fields of brown the shadows sweep 

Along the naked trees; 
And somewhere from the branches deep 

Whistles the ghostly breeze. 

In Jean's old home beyond the kirk 

The youth together flock, 
In jubilee of game and glee, 

Save Rob whom memories mock. 

Giggling glee — bubbling fair — 

Till at the middle night 
An eerie walling fills the air 

And stops the heart with fright. 

Unearthly low and sad it calls. 

It dies to silence soon. 
Was it within these shadowy walls 

Or under the ghostly moon? 

O out and spake then Noma Glynn, 
And wild and pale was she, 
68 



" A ghost is seen each Hallowe'en, 
At midnight seen is he; 

" Those earthless footsteps lightly tread 

Yon hills at Hallowe'en 
The fairest ghost of all the dead 

That mold in churchyards green. 

" Whoever sees that ghost arise, 

To him is grief and groan; 
Whoever spies his eldritch eyes 

Falls down as dead as stone! " 

Pale and still with terror all 

Stood like stones to hear. 
Out and spake, that spell to break, 

Agnes, void of fear: 

" The tale is idle — out I go, 

Nor fear I phantom lore! " 
Still and pale, they watched her go. 

Back she came no more. 
69 



lH^uvp of tf)e Xottti 

IV. 

By terror eerie haunted, 

Rob shook with utter dread; 
His highland heart was daunted, 

Remembering his dead. 

The girl to track who came not back, 

He left the cottage soon. 
The clouds above were mad to rack 

And oversweep the moon. 

The shadows underneath w^re mad 

The earth to overdance, 
To flit and fall and darken all, 

Departing like a glance. 

The dead leaves rustled — were they stirred 

By mortal foot, or blown 
By the breezes — what was that he heard ? 

A shudder and a moan! 

Beneath a butternut creaking bare, 
Upon a mossy mound 
70 



IS^uvp Of f^t TSTotrtfi 

Was shape or shadow — Agnes there 
Had sunk upon the ground! 

He bent above her, fain to speak, 

When she his face beheld. 
She drove him from her with a shriek 

By mortal fear impelled. 

" Away ! Aw ay ! O touch me not ! 

Not thou, of all the world ! " 
He heard, believing that her thought 

In chaos wild was whirled. 

" Not I of all the world, when thou 
Didst love me once so well! " 

" Ay," she replied, " and love thee now 
But get thee hence ! Farewell ! " 

" And hast thou seen this Hallowe'en 
Those dread unearthly eyes?" 

" A lightsome phantom I have seen 
Where yonder pathway lies. 
71 



©atiJ of tiie ISfottJi 

" Naught utter of that face ! The form 

Was radiant to see, 
But since I heard its awful word 

Come never near to me ! " 

But nearer still he stepped to her, 

The shadow shifted grim. 
And crouching near, in terror sheer. 

Witless she stared at him. 

Then nearer still he stepped to her. 

She sprang unto her feet; 
Away she ran as fleet as man 

Whom devils follow fleet. 

V. 

The day has dawned, the sun beyond 

The rugged mountain set 
For more than thrice an hundred times 

Since Rob and Agnes met. 

That night of moon and terror. 
That fearsome Hallowe'en, 

72 



IS^uvp of tiie ISTottJi 

Has made her shun the lad as one 
By leprosy unclean. 

By ingleside he ponders 

What may the mystery mean. 
" For weal or woe, I swear to know," 

He said, " what she hath seen ! 

" But give me from the grave, O God, 

My Jeanie once to kiss, 
Or from the grave no longer save 

A broken life like this! " 

'Twas Agnes wrote to him the note: 

" The night is Hallowe'en ; 
Go (dost thou dare?) thou knowest where 

The wraith I saw was Jean." 

VI. 

The haunted Hallowe'en is back 

With blinking stars o'erhead ; 
The twisting trees are bare and black, 

The leaves are black and dead. 
73 



lU^avp Of tijir W^Otttl 

Under the hill, the lonely kirk 

And Jeanie's home between, 
Soft be his tread who with the dead 

Bides tryst at Hallowe'en! 

" ' Her bones are buried beyond the sea ' — 

Oh, lies and false alarms! 
To-night will Jeanie Douglas be 

Alive within my arms! " 

Out spake a voice — he shook with fright 

His name it uttered low. 
He turned to see a phantom bright, 

All whiter than the snow! 

Her face was lifted to the light 

Of all the stars to show 
The smiling lips, the bonny bright 

Blue e5^es of long ago. 

One cry all sharp with wild delight — 

But never the ghost of Jean, 
And never on another night 

Her lover again was seen. 

74 



n^atp of m :6<roi:tj) 



NORNA THORNTON. 

She roamed along the ragged rocks 

Where gushed the gurly sea. 
"To-morrow," tossing back her locks 

She laughed, "he comes to me!" 

The sky was purple overhead, 

The green old ocean sang, 
The risen moon was bloody red 

And loud the sea birds' clang. 

"Thank God to-night he is not nigh!'^ 

Cried Noma Thornton soon. 
For dark and darker grew the sky 

And bloodier the moon. 

The wind went walking round about. 

The eerie wave went black. 
The bloody moon was blotted out 

Beneath the scudding rack. 

75 



fj^atp of tJ)e ISfortti 

The black in which the blind man walks 

Came down on sea and land ; 
The ocean boomed among the rocks 

And thundered on the strand. 

The lightning leaped athwart the sky, 

The thunder burst sublime! 
Oh night of nights for man to die 

At his appointed time! 

A voice is heard, it shouts afar, 
Men rush with mighty strides. 

"A ship has crossed the harbor bar! 
Among the rocks it rides! " 

A flash, and then the thunder crashed; 

The darkness thick was furled; 
Then out the leaping lightning flashed 

And lit the eerie world. 

When out the leaping lightning flashed, 
" Look! " Noma Thornton cried. 

" Look yonder! Look! to death is dashed 
A vessel on the tide! " 
76 



fl^uvp of tl^e ISTotrtift 

" Now comes the crack of doom! " they cry, 

" And death Is on her track! " 
On Hampton haven heaving high, 

The breakers, leaping black, 

Are leaping black and breaking w^hite 

Upon the harbor rocks. 
When inky blank again the night 

The keenest vision blocks. 

The plunge and thunder of the deep 
The shrillest shriek w^ould drown. 

God only — who is gone — could keep 
That diapason down. 

But hark! a strident crash is heard! 

The lightning leaps a-lee! 
All man could see, all men averred, 

Was flotsam on the sea ! 

The lightning leaped along the sky, 

Men read beneath its flame, 
From the vessel's broken beak tossed high. 

And Noma was the name! 



^av9 of tftt Wottift 

Insanely Noma to the sea 

Cried when that name she knew, 

" Give Skipper Jamie back to me, 
Or drown this body too! " 

Insanely Noma to the sea 

Ran swift, but as she ran 
The surf washed homeward heavily 

The body of a man. 

''Stop! for the love of God! O girl, 
Thy love lies on the strand! " 

She turned, with head and heart a-whirl, 
She knelt and took his hand. 

" Oh heavy, heavy on my knee. 

And cold my darling's head! 
And cold the arms that folded me 

So fondly — he is dead ! " 

She plunged into the plunging sea 

Ere any man could save. 
Grim Death was laughing loud for glee 

Below the wicked wave. 

78 



J^arji of tJie l<iovtft 

For, sighing on the sodden sand, 

The skipper came to life. 
He glanced along the gloomy strand, 

He called his promised wife. 

Oh, golden love shall kill his care, 

And golden hope is sweet! 
But golden was that corpse's hair 

The surf flung at his feet. 



79 



10^av» of tf)e Wort]^ 



EVIL IVAN'S BRIDE. 

Eerily the olden moon 

Within the crescent rode 
The ocean floor, a skull all gore, 

In a golden bowl bestowed. 

And black against the somber sea 

Uprose a castle bad. 
Nor any turf but leaping surf 

And solid rock it had. 

" Go down unto the somber sea," 

Said Ivan, evil-eyed, 
" And light the stony tower for me 

Where I shall bring my bride! " 

I shook with fear such words to hear; 

A darksome man was he 
To nest a bride at such a tide. 

By such a sounding sea! 
80 



fl^atti of tt)e tlSTortfj 

Thundering the beaches moan, 

But from that bridal night 
Was evil Ivan never known 

To any mortal sight. 

That castle black on a boulder's back, 

Men say of it in fear, 
Shuddering to their icicle souls, 

" 'Tis haunted many a year! 

*' It hath a ghost that grins in glee 

When scuds the gibbous moon ; 
When devils drive the winds at sea 

It laugheth like a loon ! " 

An owl will hoot at the haunted moon 

From ivied ruins lone. 
But fearsome most is a giggling ghost 

Where sounding oceans moan. 

*Tis night; in the gloom the combers spume, 
And the moon at the window peeks; 

In the hollow hall as dim as doom 
A mortal footstep creaks. 
81 



^atv of ttie l^ovtft 

Unsought for twenty years that room 

'Tis evil Ivan seeks; 
His hair, once like a hearse's plume, 

Is grizzled now in streaks. 

He heard a sound, he looked around. 

He thought it was a moan. 
Was it a moan, that mournful sound. 

Or an echo of his groan? 

He rolled his eyes, aghast, agape 

At the dim moon-litten room; 
He thought he saw a moving shape 

That should have lain in tomb. 

As black as crape that moving shape, 

'Twas blacker than the gloom 
In the corners. " Oh ! " he groaned, agape, 

Remembering the tomb! 

He glanced again a glance in vain. 

If ghost, the ghost was gone; 
The moon looked down the skeleton pane 

At Ivan, shaking, lone. 
83 



IS^nvp of m l<iovt^ 

Out spake a voice: " O blessed glee! " 

That voice unearthly said ; 
" I pity, pity, pity thee 1 

'Tis blithesome to be dead ! " 

He shook at words so sudden said. 

For an idiot may divine 
The gibbering of the bony dead 

Is winter to the spine. 

As if a frozen corpse's hand 
Had slapped his naked heart. 

When white he saw a phantom stand 
He shook with a fearful start. 

For drifting o'er the naked floor 

It stood within the light; 
Nor black as crape that phantom shape. 

But like a lily white. 

" O God ! " he muttered, half in swoon, 

" The face is hers, the eyes 
Are hers that glitter to the moon, 

As fair as Paradise! 

83 



fl^uvp of tl^e TSTortli 

" They are no lips of mortal warm 

Those fearful words that said. 
The bones that shaped that beauteous form 

Have twenty years been dead ! " 

Then through a door as dark as doom 

Floats and disappears 
That phantom to a hollow room 

Whose echo Ivan hears — 

" Oh blithesome are the dead ! " thought he, 

"That apparition said! 
No heart like hers could ever be 

So happy to be dead ! " 

A haggard look askance he took, 

The haunted halls he fled. 
And did he hear a moaning near, 

And was it from the dead? 

Nor any tone of bitter moan 

Self-murdered heard he more — 

A corpse is he the somber sea 
For ever tumbles o'er. 
84 



W^V9 of tJjr :isrotti) 

But a bitter tone of moaning lone, 

Nor was it from the dead, 
Like waves that rave in a cave of stone. 

Rose soon as Ivan fled. 

In the mellow yellow of the moon 

Fantastic on the floor. 
As black as crape a moving shape 

Came tottering once more. 

" So dear, so cruel, who like thee! " 

That sable woman cried. 
And peered upon the somber sea 

As Ivan sank and died. 

Then to her wailing agony 

The only answer said, 
" I pity, pity, pity thee! 

'Tis blithesome to be dead ! " 

Nor black as crape the phantom shape. 

But like the lily white, 
Which drifted o'er the naked floor 

And laughed to see the light. 

85 



^nv» of ti&e :tCortti 

'Twas evil Ivan's daughter, born 

As crazy as a loon. 
With vacant laughter, eve to morn, 

She gibbers at the moon. 

" Thy father dies in yonder sea! " 

The sable woman cried; 
The answer came, *' I pity thee! 

'Tis blessed to have died ! " 

" Daughter darling, yes I know, " 

The sable woman said, 
" Marked unborn by a mother's woe, 

'Tis blessed to be dead ! 

" Daughter darling, follow me ! 

Deserted once when wed. 
The bed is deep where I shall sleep — 

Ivan's bridal bed ! " 

To the castle parapet went she — 

It overhangs the tide — 
And, turning to the somber sea. 

She leaped, and sank and died. 
86 



Jl^uvp of ttit TSTottii 

"Aha, ha, ha! A heavy host! " 

The crazy daughter said. 
" Oh, I am but a gleesome ghost ! 

'Tis blithesome to be dead ! " 



87 



^uvp of ttir ISTottti 



VENGEANCE IS MINE. 

I. 

From the deeps will I utter it once, from the 
heart of the damned will it leap 

Like the lavas that leap to the skies when the 
mightiest mountains can keep 

In suppression their furies no more. Of the in- 
finite mercies that shine 

Over all, it is all that I claim — 'tis a memory 
mad, and 'tis mine! 



From the blackness of darkness this once of the 

days that are dead will I sing; 
Of the eyes that were fair as the stars, and the 

tresses like twilight in spring; 
Of the smiles that were sweet and the voice that* 

was low as the oriole's call, 
And of maddening passion for her, for her beauty 

was mighty in all. 

88 



n^nw of m :t<fottii 

Through unspeakable darkness they come in re- 
membrance, those visions of yore, 

And of her — but for ever and ever her name 
may I utter no more. 

We were children together, the day of her birth 

was the day of my own, 
We were friendly in youth, and I loved her — 

how madly, God only hath known! 
But a happier lover than I in her fancy ascended 

his throne 
Till a year had scarce withered away, when he 

left her to sorrow alone. 
He had come, he had taken her heart, he had 

taken my hope and was gone. 

But I waited, for mighty is love, and my spirit 

lay prone at her feet. 
She forgot that I loved her, I know, in forget- 

fulness cold and complete. 
But I waited, for mighty is love, and if ever her 

tears should be dry 



^avp of ttif l^OVtff 

And, forgetting the false, she could smile, she 

should find that the faithful was nigh. 
And I waited, though weary the years — since 

I laughed as a rollicking child 
I had wanted her only. At last she remembered 

I loved her, and smiled. 
I was happy! The hills of my home and the 

heart in my bosom grew light 
As the summer with haloes of hope from the 

moments I spent in her sight. 



II. 

But the summer soon faded away, and the days 

of our happiness fled. 
When the eeriest night of the autumn was 

shimmering high overhead, 
An insidious whisper I heard; like a snake in 

my bosom it fed. 
'Twas a word of the deepest despair that can 

eat its way into the heart; 
'Twas a hint — was it truth, or a lie? When 

suspicions and jealousies start 
90 



J^arp of tt)e TSfotrtJj 

They will leap in the halls of the soul like the 

dancing of devils insane 
In the breathless, low hollows of Hell till the 

soul is all passion and pain. 
Was it true that the false had returned? It 

was maddening into my brain 
That forgiveness was his for the asking, from 

her I had worshipped in vain. 
It was lightly she cared for my love; was her 

passion so mighty for him 
She could steal to his arms in the hours of a 

night so infernal and dim? 
It was maddening into my brain! In a frenzy 

each moment more grim 
Till it swept from my bosom all love, I was 

striding from room unto room, 
Love returning to battle with wrath, which arose 

like a demon to doom 
Every tenderer thought of the heart, till, the 

terrible struggle to stay, 
I girded a sword to my body and swiftly I 

bounded away. 



91 



^UV9 Of tfit Xotti^ 

III. 

It was late in the year, and the grass of Novem- 
ber lay brown on the ground; 
It was night, and the moon in the azure was 

journeying yellow and round. 
She was swift as the hours of our joy and, like 

ghosts in the wailing night-breath. 
The great folds of the clouds were swept over 

her, white as the Angel of Death. 
On the hills, on the fields of my home, on the 

woods that were leafless and dim, 
The black shadows were chasing the moonlight 

that died in the darknesses grim. 
Like the flame of my passion for her in the 

doom of my anger for him. 
But I sped through the night (I was swift as 

the shifting, wild shades on my path) 
In the might of a passionate love, In the speed 

of a terrible wrath. 
When I came to her garden at last, by the 

scudding of clouds in the sky. 
Like a blot of black Ink upon paper, a darkness 

was dropped from on high. 



fi^avp of ttie Wottfi 

But I heard the low voice of my love, and " O 

love! " were the words of the voice. 
Was she musing of me, and alone, or indeed 

was the traitor her choice? 
I waited in anguish and hope till the moon out 

of shadow should roll; 
It shone — the last hope of my being fell rigid 

and dead in my soul. 

When the moon, in the eldritch cloud-dances, 

whirled giddily into the blue, 
She was wickedly quick to reveal, with a gleam 

of her ghastliest hue. 
In the arms of her lover, my love! Then I 

clutched at the hilt of my sword, 
And I flashed it out, glittering cold to the 

moonbeams above us that poured. 
O revenge! For revenge I was raging! My 

eyes from their sockets did start, 
While the passionate blood of my body ran 

blacker than Hell to my heart. 
To the hilt in his heart then I plunged the white 

steel, and he died with a groan, 
93 



^avp of tiie :c<rortti 

As my love in her agony shrieked, with all 

Hades and death in her tone. 
On his body she fell with the cry of a love that 

was mighty as Fate, 
But once turning to hurl through my soul one 

horrible look of her hate. 
While the clutches of agony cruel were tearing 

her heart to its death. 
She had laid her cold head on his bosom, and 

yielded forever her breath. 

From the sight of her hate and the sight of her 
love so majestic I fled, 

And her hatred for me and her passion for him 
was the curse on my head. 

Did I care, did I grieve, that I slew him? Ha! 
ha! I had stricken him dead! 

He had loved her and taken her love! I re- 
joiced in the death I had done! 

He would clasp her no more to his bosom! Ha! 
ha! He was dead! She was won 

From caresses forever of his! And no matter if 
lost unto me, 

94 



IS^^vp of tfft l^OXtff 

It was he that should see her no more, — the 

glass eyes of the dead cannot see! 
No remorses had murder for me, nor the sin of 

my soul had I fled. 
But the pang of her passion for him, and the 

hatred she hurled on my head. 
It was more than victorious vengeance, in vain 

was the deed I had done, 
I was damned by a doom that was mightier far 

than the joy I had won. 
Yea, I knew that forever to him she was lost, 

but, ah Hell! I had known 
That she died for the love that she bore him; 

he claimed her last kiss as his own. 
I had lived but to love her, and now the last 

glance of her eyes I should see. 
Was the look of her horrible hate that she 

hurled o'er his body at me! 

I may speed with all swiftnesses merged into one 

irresistible speed; 
His blackening blood I may shake from my 

sword and may laugh at the deed. 
95 



IS^avp Of ttie Novtfi 

I may flee from the deed, but no more can I 

flee from that passionate glance 
Of her hatred! No matter! Aha! Have ye 

seen, where the darknesses dance 
One after another across the mad moon in the 

eventide's breath, 
From the ground the long sword pointing up 

to the moon like the finger of Death? 
Did ye see, O ye demons, the glittering blade 

I had borne at my side? 
Did ye laugh with your hollow Ha, Ha, when 

I hurled myself on it and died ? 



IV. 

In the blackness of darkness forever, a soul that 

is blasted, I roam 
Where the midnights are blacker than thunder, 

and death, even death, has no home 
For the soul disembodied and damned by the 

love and the anger that sw^ell 
In itself, when no will but its nature has made 

its eternity's hell. 

96 



fj^uvv of t!je TSTottti 

But the curse Is forever upon it, and lone, in 

the blackness of night, 
In the soul of the dead, the wild love is aflame 

with its maddening might, 
Till I yearn in unspeakable anguish to see the 

one woman I love. 
And I rise from the valleys of death and 

athwart the lone midnight I move. 
By the infinite caverns of horror, by plains that 

no mortal can tread ; 
By the mountains that loom to the darkness, all 

black with the curse of the dead ; 
By the ways that the dead cannot utter, I come! 

I am come to her grave ! 
I shall look through the earth to her body to 

see the one darling I crave. 
She is cold, she is pallid and still, she is dead, 

but what matter? 'Tisshe! 
She is white in her beautiful silence, and I, yet 

again I shall see 
The one love of my soul! So I bend to her 

grave that is grassy and green. 



97 



?i^atrjj of tf)e ISTottJi 

And I look — but, O God! I am dumb with 

the doom of what there I have seen. 
'Twas the ultimate horror of Hell that I saw 

in her pallor and grace, 
For the look of her hatred for me was frozen in 

death on her face! 
O my darling, for ever in vain for thy love in 

all worlds must I wait! 

not ever in life wouldst thou love me, and 

even in death wilt thou hate! 

Then I staggered away, when a rage, like a 

whirlwind arose in my soul. 
And I swore by the fates and the gods, and the 

stars that eternally roll, 
(For I rushed to the grave of my rival, where, 

down the dim asphodel deeps, 

1 beheld him serene in the silence where, pallid, 

for ever he sleeps). 
" In her life thou hast taken her love, in her 

death thou hast left me her hate; 
When I lived, for the curse that thou gavest, I 

hurled through eternity's gate, 



?©atii of tfje Nottt) 

From its body asunder, thy soul, with a stab 

in the horrible night. 
Oh! my bones whistle bare in the breezes, thy 

mortal no more can I blight, 
But immortal thou livest, they say, in the Aidenn 

of love that is fair — 
Ay, remember my spirit yet lives, tho' in Angers 

of Hell and Despair! 
As thy body I slew in revenge, by the Fates and 

the furies I sw^ear; 
By the demons and angels of wrath! by the 

Prince of the Powers of Air! 
I have sworn that my spirit shall rise, and shall 

damn to the nethermost gloom, 
In its vengeance, from Heaven itself thy soul 

that hath fashioned my doom!" 

Away on the wings of my wrath from the inky 

black mountains of death! 
From the angers of Hell I have taken all angers 

that madden its breath. 
From the graves of the earth and the Blackness 

of Darkness Forever, I rise 
99 



m^vp of m Nortj) 

On the wings of my passion for her and my 

hatred of him to the skies. 
Far away from the hills and the seas and the 

chambers of thunder I go, 
Till the moon and the sun and the planets have 

died in the distance below, 
And from star unto star and beyond the last 

star of the universe, lo. 
Till I see, in the infinite distance, the Jasper- 
walled Highlands that glow 
In their splendor for ever and ever, sublime 

with the pearl at the gate — 
Till I sweep through those portals of pearl, in 

my fury of vengeance and hate ! 
Not a saint hath forbidden my entrance, no 

seraph hath questioned my ways, 
Not a sign from the hosts of the saved, not a 

frown from the Ancient of Days. 
As I cry in my rage for the soul that is Nemesis, 

curse, and despair. 
The Archangel himself for an answer is tenderly 

whispering, " There! " 



100 



^arti of tlie TSfortti 

And I look where his pinions direct me — aha! 

I have seen him at last! 
I have seen — but, O God ! with what anguish 

the deadliest sickness did blast 
My soul as I saw him, for there — it was he in 

his haven of rest — 
But the spirit of her I had loved was reclining 

in bliss on his breast ! 

Frozen in pain was my vengeance, dumb was 
my anger and dead. 

I was utterly lone, and a horror of infinite bleak- 
ness sank dread 

On my sinking and sickening soul, till backward 
I tottered and fell 

Staggering, reeling, down from the pearly gates 
into Hell. 



101 



fl^uv» of tJir TJCottt) 



THE EVENSTAR. 

Oh mine was a spark 
Of life, flame red, 

Till utterly from the day, 
Into the dark, 
Into the dead, 

It shaded sheer away. 

And a shadow soul 
On the gloom to float 

Of the outer wild unknown 
From the dust did roll, 
And gave one note 

In parting — 'twas a moan. 

One hollow moan 

To the awful sky — 
The spaces I must roam. 
For the skies intone 
That hollow cry 

To be my welcome home. 
103 



And why so far, 
And why so light, 

And why so wildly free, 
Without a star, 
Without the might 

Of wing to carry me? 



And why the while 
So calm remain, 

So passionless as this; 
Without a smile, 
Without a pain, 

In all the lone abyss? 



Nor is there one 
To welcome me 

But a boundless, lone abyss? 
And have I done 
Eternally 

With love and pain and bliss? 
103 



la^nvp of tt|t TSTortfi 

Oh! what, so far, 
Is this I see, 

All beautiful and bright? 
One evenstar 
To welcome me 

In all the boundless night! 



Oh nearer yet, 

And less, less far — 
My disembodied soul 
Can ne'er forget 
That evenstar. 

Whatever aeons roll! 



Emerald green 
And azure blue 

And alabaster white, 
And sunset sheen 
Of pink that grew 

On the purple peaks at night 
104 



y^uvp of tftt TJCottl^ 

A paradise 

Of beauty bright 

Art thou, O Evenstar, 
To bless these eyes 
The first great night 

When I must wander far! 



But who art thou, 
O lovely one 

In thy star so near to me, 
More beauteous now 
Than moonrise on 
A sleeping, silver sea? 



Thy tresses long, 
Thy smile so sweet. 

Like the smile I used to know! 
The flowers that throng 
Thy snowy feet 

Are whiter than the snow. 
105 



fl^uvp of tftt ISTottti 

Thy robe Is white 
As righteousness, 

Why dost thou come to me 
Who am this night 
All passionless, 

From love by death made free? 



So silken soft 

Thy lily-white breast! 
So lilac sweet thy kiss! 
O why so oft 
Thy tresses rest 

Upon a breast like this? 



And around me arms 
All airy light 

Are white as a lily bloom — 
O love, the charms 
I hold to-night 

I thought were under the tomb! 
106 



ISI^nvp of tije isrovtf) 

" O hast forgot 

Thy first love nowj 

Thine only and thy last? 
Rememberest not 
One holy vow 

From out the holy past? " 



Thine eyes, I see, 
Are deep and blue, 

Like hers — my love who died ! 
"And I am she. 
And thou wert true. 

And, O my Sanctified! 



" I am thine for this; 
Nor bliss could be 

Where thou dost not abide.'' 
Nor passionless 
I come to thee, 

But wild with love, my bride! 
107 



la^uvp of tf^t ISTovti^ 

'"'' Ay, bride of thine 
For evermore 

Amid i?nmortal mirth, 
O love divine, 
O loved of yore. 

Mid the purple peaks of earth. 



108 



J^atji of tfir TSTottti 



IN SHADOWLAND. 

"O Angel, stay! I fear this land 
Of amaranth and asphodel!" 
" Nay, fear not. Shadow, all Is well. 

For see, I hold thy hand." 

" These vistas dim of cypresses 
I fear, for I a sinner stand." 
" I know — I feel it on thy hand. 

Heart's blood of hers it is." 

" O blame me not, but pity me! 
I loved a wife, but lovers part — " 
" I know it — thou didst break her heart 

And thrust her forth from thee." 

" Have mercy, thou of Shadowland, 

And damn me not with doom more drear! 
" Nay, sins are all forgiven here. 

And see, I hold thy hand." 
109 



?^atii of tlir ISTortfi 

" But see, where looms yon lonesome tree 
Afar, a woman's form doth stand." 
" Ay, thou dost long to hold her hand 

For love's eternity." 

" In Shadowland, O let her be 

My own — but see! she drifts away! " 

" Ay, drifts forever and for aye 
Her mournful soul from thee! " 

" Her face is turned away from me! 

She will not turn — my heart is sore!" 
" Yea, once — but not for evermore — 

Her eyes will turn to thee." 

" Her form is beauteous — is she fair 
As evening stars in twilight skies?" 
" Ay, there is splendor in her eyes 

And glory in her hair." 

" My wife! " (for on the endless track 

She turns), "Oh! bring her back to me! 
" I did not thrust her out from thee, 

I cannot bring her back! " 
110 



la^uvp of ti&e :&Covtt| 



THE SHADOW BROTHER. 

'Twas somewhere down the sunless land, 

Along the windless ways 
Among the spectral trees they met 

Each other's eerie gaze. 

" Shadow brother, who art thou, 
With earthless eyes aglow?" 

" I was a poet in the earth 
A thousand years ago." 

"And did they listen to thy song?" 
" To none my song was dear ; 

My heart grew heavy till it dragged 
My tired spirit here." 

" What dust upon thy shadowy shoe 
Is scattered thin and white?" 

" My critics' crumbled monuments 
I trod on in the night." 
Ill 



^nvp of tfje ISTortJ) 

" And where are now thy songs, the songs 

Left silent in their day?" 
" The poets sing them at their tasks, 

The children at their play." 



112 



MRR&RY OF CONGRESS 

BiBBSBBilil 

015 938 156 



